After struggling a stroke within the fall, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is “attacking his rehab with the identical resilience” that he has exhibited for many years on the staff’s bench, staff CEO R.C. Buford informed reporters in Paris on Wednesday, in line with The Athletic’s Joe Vardon.
Whereas Buford isn’t ruling out the chance that Popovich will resume his teaching duties for the Spurs later this season, he mentioned it’s unimaginable to say for certain — or to mission a restoration timeline for the longtime head coach, who will flip 76 subsequent Tuesday.
“His enchancment continues to get higher, [but] I don’t know that we now have any option to decide the clock,” Buford mentioned. “Predicting what’s to come back is only a perform of the place Pop’s rehab goes.”
Popovich initially stepped away from the Spurs in early November attributable to what was described on the time as a well being concern. The membership later put out a statement saying that Popovich had suffered a light stroke, and he subsequently issued a statement of his own in December that hinted he deliberate to return to the sidelines for the Spurs if and when his well being allowed.
Within the meantime, performing head coach Mitch Johnson continues to steer the membership and has San Antonio inside placing distance of a play-in spot at 19-22. Based on Vardon, Johnson described his communication with Popovich as “constant.”
“He’s watching video games, nonetheless as opinionated as he’s ever been, and aggressive, and what you’ll assume — giving reward and cussing me out, all on the identical time,” Johnson mentioned, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “Pop’s well being has been the precedence for the reason that begin of this and till dot-dot-dot. That’s form of how we, and I, take the strategy. We would like one of the best for Pop and I would like one of the best for this staff and nevertheless I will help is the place I’ll put my power.”
Chris Paul additionally mentioned he stays involved with Popovich, telling the media in Paris that the Spurs coach is in contact with gamers through cellphone.
“I’m not even certain if that is public, however he calls,” Paul mentioned. “He calls after video games and I speak to him, and he tells me what he sees, and I recognize that greater than something as a result of he doesn’t have to do this. And he does.”
As Vardon writes in a separate story for The Athletic, if Popovich had been in France on the present street journey, he possible would have taken the Spurs out to a fancy Paris restaurant for the type of “wine-soaked” team dinner he’s known for. As a substitute, it was second-year star Victor Wembanyama who took the lead on that staff dinner on Monday after the membership arrived in his native nation, per Vardon.
“We talked about it — Pop had a schedule right here, and he would have executed one thing like that too,” Wembanyama mentioned. “Doing that on the primary day was essential for me to welcome [teammates] and to indicate them, as a result of I do know if I went to any of those guys’ nation or metropolis, I’d have liked to seek out out about about the place they arrive from to be taught to know them higher as a result of they’re they’re all good human beings. So actually, it’s an actual likelihood to share these moments collectively.”
